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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
THE chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Tapiwa Matangaidze, says ZIFA have turned into a rogue organisation and there is urgent need for intervention to tame the association in order to save football in this country.
The former Premier Soccer League boss yesterday said the future of Zimbabwe football was at risk under the leadership of the current ZIFA Board and blasted the Sports Commission for being clueless in dealing with the crisis in the game.
Matangaidze’s brutal criticism of ZIFA comes in the wake of the Association’s failure to overturn the Warriors’ 2018 World Cup ban after the country’s football leaders failed to pay former national team coach Valinhos, the chaos surrounding the preparations for the 2017 Nations Cup qualifier against Malawi and concerns about the way the game is being governed.
Yesterday, the Warriors failed to travel to Malawi as scheduled for the first match of their 2017 Nations Cup qualifiers after a spectacular fallout with the ZIFA leadership over allowances, bonuses and match fees for the big game.
The players did not leave their hotel for Harare International Airport where they were scheduled to board a plane to Malawi in the latest ugly chapter of their fallout with the ZIFA leadership.
Our sister newspaper H-Metro exclusively reported yesterday that chaos exploded in the Warriors camp on Wednesday night after the players were addressed by a ZIFA delegation, which included Board member Fungai Chihuri and chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze.
There has always been a lack of trust between the players and the ZIFA leaders and the scars of how the Association shifted goal posts and did not deliver on their promise to pay the players half of the $250 000 earnings from the 2014 CHAN proceeds, but instead paid them only $30 000, are yet to heal.
The relationship between the players and the leadership remains toxic and matters were not helped this week, too, by the late start to the preparations for the game against Malawi because of a sensational fallout between Warriors coach Callisto Pasuwa and ZIFA, who have failed to pay him for the nine months he has been leading the junior and senior national teams.
The drama in the Warriors camp is just a glimpse of the chaos in domestic football where some Councillors have also been battling to revoke the mandate given to ZIFA president Cuthbert Dube to lead the Association until 2018.
Matangaidze believes ZIFA, who are saddled by a debt estimated at around $7 million, have turned into a rogue organisation and there was need to urgently tame the Association to save Zimbabwe football from a possible collapse.
“We note, with concern, the disturbing reports associated with football governance,” Matangaidze said in a press statement released yesterday.
“We have, for some time now, been worried about the generally sad state ZIFA finds itself in. We are particularly peeved by ZIFA and SRC’s attitude of ‘business as usual’, in light of the Warriors’ World Cup ban and the shambolic preparations for AFCON 2017.
“We are perturbed that the SRC appears clueless on how to reign in what is, for all purposes, an insolvent and errant National Association.
“We appreciate that there might be a need, sooner rather than later, to call on stakeholders to take a firm stance and push for due process, which action can take the form of, but not limited to, the appointment of a Provisional Liquidator and a Stabilisation Committee.
“But, in the interim, we call upon the ZIFA Councillors to reflect on their fiduciary responsibility to the football fraternity, and the nation at large, and take positions to save the beautiful game.
“We are anxious to engage ZIFA Councillors after their EGM/AGM or both. In the interim, we pray the Warriors do us proud in Malawi. Go Zimbabwe Go!”
In February this year before he became the chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Matangaidze warned that bankrupt ZIFA were in danger of being liquidated.
“ZIFA, with a debt overhang of $6 million, is insolvent. Recently, we have read of attempts to spin the figure to $4 million. Regardless, the Association is insolvent,” Matangaidze noted.
“ZIFA’s continued financial transactions with other organisations and companies in this country clearly expose those firms and entities (maybe Matangaidze should also have included that the Association’s continued financial transactions with national teams’ players and coaches also exposed these individuals).
“However, should one, two or several of ZIFA’s creditors call for its liquidation, and the appointment of a Judicial Manager in the interim, surely this can never be misconstrued to be government intervention.
“ZIFA’s creditors have a right at law to be protected by the country’s judiciary system. The creditors gave a service to ZIFA in good faith and in a normal business transaction. The creditors have a right to be paid. Our laws, just like laws in other countries, are very clear on creditor/debtor relationships.
“As things stand, ZIFA simply has no capacity to pay off its debts.”
Matangaidze laid down a proposal for ZIFA to be lifted out of their final quagmire.
“If ZIFA has well-wishers, locally and internationally, Mr (Cuthbert) Dube included, who can settle the debts, then by all means, let it be done quickly, failing which I humbly submit the following for the football community’s debate:
a) That, at least, one of ZIFA’s creditors petition the courts for its compulsory liquidation and the appointment of a Judicial Manager.
b) The Judicial Manager, so appointed, should engage FIFA in pursuing options to fund and reconstruct ZIFA.
c) That ZIFA Board members and Councillors be appraised of the implications of specification with regards to the people at the helm of liquidated organisations.”
Online Reporter